#8 Toyota demoted for going over the power limit at WEC Monza

A 50-second penalty awarded to the World Endurance Championship lead No. 8 Toyota at the 6 Hours of Monza dropped them from fourth to sixth in the final results.

Sebastien Buemi, Ryo Hirakawa and Brendon Hartley recovered from separate penalties to go on to lead the championship at the 24 Hours of Le Mans #51 Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar at home.

But a bulletin issued by the stewards hours after the race stated that the GR010 HYBRID LMH had exceeded the “maximum force limit released” stipulated in the Balance of Performance, which is governed by the technical regulations.

The infringement, which occurred on lap 190 of 200, was the car’s second infraction of the race after it received a reprimand for the same problem on lap seven.

The second violation came two laps before Hartley took the fourth from the No. 5 Factory Porsche 963 LMDH of Frederick Makowitzki into Turn 1.

Because the penalty was issued after the race, the stewards stipulated that the five-second pit stop penalty would be converted into a 50-second penalty after the race, moving the Toyota behind the #5 Porsche and #51 Ferrari.

This had also finished ahead of the Porsche on the road until it too was hit with a 45-second post-race penalty for James Calado for overtaking Makowiecki off the track in the straight.

Instead of increasing its championship lead from 25 to 29 points with two laps to go, the #8 car’s advantage was now reduced to 23 points.

Buemi received a 10-second penalty on his first pit stop for pushing the No. 51 Ferrari of Antonio Giovinazzi into the first corner of the race, before being slapped a minute for stopping with Satoshi Hoshino’s Dstation Aston Martin Vantage GTE on the run into Ascari who Send the Japanese to the barricades.

The sister #7 Toyota of Mike Conway, Jose Maria López and Kamui Kobayashi took its third win of the season at Monza after beating the #50 Ferrari of Miguel Molina, Niklas Nielsen and Antonio Fuoco.